


Crown of the Twilight

by midorimortem



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Inspired by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Lord of the Undead wishes for company and love, Marriage of Convenience, Mihawk in love, Persephone Goes Willingly With Hades (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Princess Perona's adverntures in Netherland, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Underworld, Very soft Mihawk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27600814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midorimortem/pseuds/midorimortem
Summary: The Lord of the Underworld never imagined he’d ever get a guest in his realm who didn’t want to go back to the world of the living. And yet, Perona, Princess of Spring, refuses to leave, making her home among the spirits of those beyond the horizon. Retelling of Hades and Peresphone’s Myth.
Relationships: Dracule Mihawk/Perona
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24





	1. The Lord of the Underwold and the Princess of Spring

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song "Crown of the Twilight" by Lyriel.

The touch of plains, the touch inside  
And the breeze of the sunlight  
Where the darkness lives I have to hide  
Then I will escape through the stars  
Into the light without glory  
Is the Crown of the Twilight

The Lord of the Underworld walked among his lonely chrysanthemum gardens one late evening, the rustling of his dark mantle brushing the flowers the only sound to be heard at a distance. From afar, Mihawk could see one of the still rivers that connected all the waters in the Underworld to the sea of Nothingness, where many souls vanished into oblivion after finishing their journey through the Land of the Dead.

He had a daily tradition to go out for a stroll each and every single evening at sunset, even if his darkened domain rarely ever received a single beam of sunlight, it was the closer he could ever get to feel its warmth.

There were days in which he believed he’d gotten the shortest end of the stick when the lands had been divided between the most powerful and most veneered gods of the earth; Doflamingo had gotten the heavens; Jinbei had gotten the seas; and he… at least he’d gotten something, Mihawk thought, though the idea of living underground wasn’t always his cup of tea. It got lonely from time to time. After all, dead men tell no tales, and his one and only companion was an enormous three-headed dog that didn’t even like him that much.

The view was always the same on each and every single one of his short walks, dark and gloomy, slightly warmer at noon, with a starless night sky looming on the horizon. However, that evening something _different_ happened. A blush of soft colors appeared out of nowhere. A woman… a living woman. Her skin was pale and her silky see-through pearly robes revealed a beautiful, young body wrapped in flowers and vines. Her eyes were dark, but her lips were rosy and tender, kissing the chrysanthemums and spider lilies as she leaned down to the ground and curled down to smell them. Her hair was bright and it seemed to change tones like an aurora borealis in shades of pink.

He stopped, startled, and kept a considerable distance from the intruder as if she could be either venomous or deathly. Perhaps she was, her colors a clear indication of danger. After a few seconds of staring dumbfounding at her, recognition hit him… Mihawk had seen her before. She was the only daughter of the Goddess of Harvests and a minor deity herself, but they’d never actually talked before. The young girl always stuck to her mother's side and the older woman's strong temperament never allowed anyone to get near to her child.

“You’re the Lord of the Underworld.” She said without looking at him, her eyes fixed on the flowers beneath her. She took a large bud into her hands and her fingers glowed with warmth; the flower’s petals bloomed in less than a minute, the flowers around it slowly following through as if they longed for the warmth and the light this woman emmanated. “Your garden needs tending, the flowers feel sad and bored.”

“And you’re the Princess of Spring. What are you doing here? It’s not usual I get visitors down here, not living ones at least.” He asked, intrigued but partly annoyed because of her snarky remark. He wasn’t particularly attentive to his flowers, but he was sort of proud he’d managed to keep an entire field of flowers without any sunlight and a lot of dampness. It stung when she nonchalantly said the plants weren’t very grateful.

“Oh, so you know who I am... I… I’m sorry I came here uninvited, but I needed to get away from home. Mother won’t be happy but she doesn't know I’m here and I don’t think she’ll find out soon.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I do not wish to have any sort of conflict with your mother. I think you should leave before she gets angry.”

“I don’t want to, and I think she’s already really angry at me.” the young goddess said, frowning. She stood and walked towards him, but Mihawk stepped back a few steps, still unable to withhold her brightness. He was so used to the opaque and dead tones of his land that her shine actually hurt his eyes. “It’s been a few days since I left, but I can tell Mother’s been making a scene. I’m sure you’ve seen your rivers overflowing with souls. A few days ago we had a strong disagreement, since then she’s been crying and weeping and the skies have grown cold. The trees are dying and the animals are falling into deep slumbers...”

“Of course I’ve noticed, but I didn’t believe it would be because the Goddess of Harvest and her daughter had a fall off. Honestly, I had expected worse. But… aren’t you also making a tantrum?” He retorted, adjusting his sensitive eyes, at last able to conceive her features. He stepped in closer and stared at her childish features, captivated by her warmth and her glow. “You have a duty on the surface world, which you owe to the mortals that worship you, and yet here you are, hiding from your mother in the Underworld.”

She didn’t answer.

“I’m not going back,” the goddess of spring said shaking her head, the pink locks of hair dancing around her. “I can’t. If I do, she will keep watching over my every move, smothering me all the time. She wants to marry me off to the spirit of fallen leaves, but I… I cannot allow that. I want to be free and make my own choices, that’s why I escaped. If you just let me stay, I can make a living here on my own. I won’t bother you at all, we won’t ever meet if you don’t want to. If you let me stay and don’t tell my mother, I can tend the gardens for you.”

“The gardens are just fine…”

“They are not.” She assured. The girl moved away to demonstrate, spinning on her heels and extending her arms, flicking her wrists as she danced around. The ground around her feet blossomed with life, greenery running around wherever she stepped. The lilies and mums she touched changed their pale and dull colors to bright, fiery reds and snowy whites.

“Interesting…” The Lord of the Underworld said, examining her work. When he picked up one of the blooms she’d invigorated, it immediately turned to dust in his fingers.

“Besides… I’ve seen you when you walk in the Middle ground. You yearn life and color and the warmth of the sun so much because the Underworld is devoid of it all. I can help. I can change that. You’ve just gotta let me stay.”

Mihawk stared down at her, tilting her head up with his fingers. Strangely but fortunately, his touch did nothing to her. It seemed his curse and blessing that allowed him a certain degree of control over the souls of those who drifted across his domain did not harm the girl, as if her own nature made her impervious to the powers of the Underworld.

“Fine, you can stay.”

“Yes! You won’t regret this!”

“Under one condition…”

“What is it?”

“You will become my wife.”

“...eh?” The Princess of Spring asked in confusion, but he had a stern look in his face, as if he was perfectly unfazed by his request and expected her to be just fine with it.

“If you want to stay, you will have to marry me.”

“What?! Why?”

“It’s lonely down here. You don’t want to go back and I want company. We get a binding contract in case your mother finds out where you are.”

“...but you don’t even know my name?”

“Aren’t you Lady Perona, Princess of Spring, heir to the Harvests and, if you accept, Queen of the Underworld?”

“Hmm… guess you really do know who I am.” The princess said, tilting her head and considering her options. “Queen of the Underworld does add a nice ring to it. But… I just told you I didn’t want to marry a stranger. What makes this any different?”

“It’s different because you’ve got a choice. You can stay if you want, no conditions. But in case you want to stay, you need to anchor yourself to something that belongs to the Netherworld. As I said, the choice is yours.” He sighed and looked around, to where the orchard of pomegranate trees was.

Mihawk offered his guest a doubtful hand, which Perona took and let herself be guided through the patches of ashen flowers. He reached for a ripe fruit that hung from a lower branch from the nearest tree and handed it to her, but she didn’t take it immediately. Perona inspected it and, after noticing the fruit was indeed edible, she took it and pushed her fingers against the skin to open it.

“Don’t do that just yet. When you’ve taken your decision, eat from this tree. But once you do, your decision is final. For now… you’re my guest in this place. I won’t tell your mother and I’m sure you can survive here without a problem, but she will eventually find you. And when she does, you have the option to keep on running or go back to her. If you choose to stay with me, you would have a binding contract with me that your mother won’t be able to break.”

“Are you giving me a chance to cower?”

“You’re young, and I’m sure you’ll eventually end up missing your mother. So, when you get fed up with the Underworld, you can leave whenever you want. But if you want to stay, you will stay with me, _forever_.”

“I guess death is everlasting, right?”

“It is.”

“How much time do I have to make this decision?”

“When winter dies and spring is born anew.” He said, sitting down on the flower patch beneath the tree and dragging her down with him. It was a strange sight, his spot completely dried off and dead, and hers turning brighter and lively each second that passed.

“Six months from now…”

“If your mother does not find out where you are before the time is up and drags you out of here on her own.”

“She won’t find me. I ran from home when the moon and the sun were too busy meeting each other to spy on a silly minor goddess misbehaving.” She said with defiant eyes and smiled, leaning in closer and closing the space between them, snatching a kiss from his lips. He tasted like ashes and tears, while her lips were sweet and fragrant. “You’ve got yourself a deal, then. Six months for now...”


	2. The Netherworld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perona befriends Cerberus and Mihawk draws a [map of the Underworld ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/23/03/30/23033085a6efe57567e2db42ddf97315.jpg)to teach her about its many nooks and crannies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm speechless, the lovely Shikkearu did an [ amazing illustration ](https://shikkearu.tumblr.com/post/635611268179525632/midorimortem-did-you-read-my-mind-ive) for past chapter, I want to cry! They depicted Perona's looks PERFECTLY!
> 
> (I've not gotten fanworks from my fics since 2009, you seriously can't tell how excited I am about this!)

_And in the spring I shed my skin  
_ _And it blows away with the changing winds_  
_The waters turn from blue to red  
_ _As towards the sky I offer it_

-Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up), Florence and the Machine

A few weeks had gone by and the Princess of Spring had made her home among the land of the dead, hiding from her mother’s prying eyes. Across the flower fields, where she had first met the Lord of the Underworld, she had built up a small cabin made of brambles and vines that she had grown with help from the flowers and the trees from the orchard, which she commanded with soft melodies.

Mihawk visited her everyday, but he only did so during his daily stroll at sun fall. Whenever he came around, Perona would be tending the flowers he’d dutifully grown on his own, and ever since she came to live there, she’d brought a few seeds she believed could grow underground. Only the roses had begun to sprout, but she believed the marigolds and the lilies could adapt to the inhospitable environment as well.

“It’s ironic,” she said, showing him the short sprout that she had managed to grow right outside her cabin. “The only flowers that seem to be growing are the ones used by mortals in funerary rites.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence.” Mihawk said, being careful not to touch the small plant in fear of turning it to dust. “But I must say I’m amazed plants are growing down here. The spider lilies were a gift from a visiting goddess many years ago and the mums have been here ever since I can remember.”

“Spider lilies are supposed to be the flowers of hell in the orient. And mums are used in funerals as well, their petals represent the many cycles of reincarnations the human soul must go through to purify itself.”

“You’re very knowledgeable about them.”

“They talk to me. The flowers, the trees, even small living beings enjoy telling stories. I like to listen. Mortals don’t know how to, and the gods don’t care much about them.”

“What about your mother?”

“Mother did, but she seems to be more worried about controlling my future than tending Nature’s calls, and that’s saying a lot.”

“Could you teach me?” He said, removing a fallen lock of hair from her forehead and placing it behind her ear. She didn’t startle at his touch, but she shook her head and stared at him without saying anything for a few seconds.

“I don’t think it’d be possible. Creatures like plants or flowers are hard to understand. They don’t have any means of communication and your mere presence seems to shock them. As far as I’ve seen, there are not many living beings around, other than Baby Cerby.”

“Baby Cerby?”

“The three-headed dog.”

“You call it _Cerby._ ” He said with a deadpan look.

“Well, yeah, he is adorable. When I first came here, I had to sing some sweet lullabies to him and scratch behind three pairs of ears to get inside.” Perona said, shrugging. “You… don’t get along with Cerberus, right?”

“No. It is a very feral creature, its only function is to watch out for intruders and escapees. I’ve never considered it as some sort of pet.”

“For starters, he’s not an it. It’s a he, and he’s a puppy.” She pouted and stood up from her crouching position. Mihawk followed her and Perona offered her arm for them to walk along together. "And he’s adorable and goofy. I think all three heads share the same single brain cell, somehow. I think he would really like you if you were a little more friendly.”

“I’m not very good at that, you may have noticed.” Mihawk admitted.

“We could start with that. Why don’t we go where Cerberus is? So you can show me around a little more. I’ve only walked where my feet take me, but I’ve not gone further than the first river, I don’t dare to cross.”

“It’s better if you don’t. The ferrymen know you’re here and they know you’re alive. They are under my orders to take you wherever you wish to go, but they can be deceitful. One wrong word and you may end up having to swim.”

Perona swallowed. She had always been slightly envious of the naiads and water nymphs that danced around on her mother’s grove, but she knew her powers made her bound to the earth and the surface, thus, she couldn’t swim. For the few weeks she had been there, she had omitted to mention it.

“That’s why I’d rather go with you.” She said, trying to keep her nerves straight.

The night she entered the Underworld, she had done so by opening an Otherworldly Gate she had found during one of her escapades. She needs not to cross any river or pay a ferryman for transportation. Perona barely walked down a very dark tunnel for about an hour until she reached a tall platform where a large three-headed black dog was resting, his multiple pair of ears rising out to search for the intruding noise. After she befriended the enormous pup, she kept on walking through a road on a marsh until she found Mihawk’s palace and the enormous garden. She didn’t need to get remotely close to the waters, but now that he mentioned it, it made her slightly nervous. As a creature of the surface, she had heard of many tales about the terrifying rivers of the Underworld.

After a long walk in which the starless night had caught up with them, they followed a trail that led to Cerberus’ cave, atop of the platform Perona had reminisced before. The three-headed beast wagged its tail and ran cheerfully towards the Princess of Spring, but stopped abruptly when he saw his master, lowering the multiple pairs of ears with caution.

“Hey, Cerby! Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy too! And you too!” Perona greeted him and caressed one snout first and the other two immediately after, getting covered in drool from the shoulders down. She didn’t seem to care much. The dog’s heads nuzzled her hair time and time again, until Perona ordered him to sit and gave each mouth a fruit she'd brought from the orchard. The treats worked just fine, because the dog kept still while she cleaned herself and then it let her rest on his side when it had sat down on the cave entrance.

“I’ve never seen him act so friendly. At one time, a half-blood hero came down here and drugged him to get inside. He's never been fond of visitors ever since.” Mihawk said, leaning down and sitting on the ground before them. The dog seemed to cower, but Perona steadied him with loving caresses on his large spine.

“He’s scared of you. Have you ever been rude to him?”

“I’ve always been strict, he knows he’s got a duty to keep, but I’ve not abused my authority, I think.”

“Hmmm… then I think he’s just nervous… come! Get close!”

“I… I don’t want to touch him. I’m not sure he can withstand my powers.”

Perona blinked twice and understood that perhaps, he was a bit scared too. She sat up straight and offered both hands at him, trying to be as soothing as possible when he held them. She patted Cerberus’ side and told the dog to stand, making it sit beside them. At first, the enormous black dog reached carefully, smelling around and raising his tail and ears in constant alert, but then he allowed Mihawk to give it a simple, curt pat on the middle head… and Cerberus lost it. From intimidating feral beast, then to timid, scared hound, the massive dog became a playful, dumb puppy that demanded belly scratches from the Lord of the Dead, and, quite amazed that Perona was capable of such a feat, Mihawk couldn’t help but comply to Cerberus’ wishes.

* * *

Suddenly, playing fetch with an old skull became part of Mihawk’s routine each and every single evening. After visiting his guest at the garden, they walked together to the dog’s cave to play with him for a while. Perona had gifted Cerberus a large blanket she’d sewn with vines and flowers that, thanks to her magic, had turned into a warm, cotton-like fabric. The dumb mutt loved it, and it usually came running around with the cloth in his mouth, waiting to be wrapped on it by either Mihawk or the Princess.

“I think I might need to get another guardian. This one is becoming too soft and… goofy.”

“You could keep him inside your palace. Or I could care for him in the gardens. I know a guy with lots of eyes who might love to have a new part-time job down here.”

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” Mihawk admitted, noticing he’d actually like the company. He’d been meaning to ask for some days now, but… it just wasn’t the time to ask her to move into the palace. Not yet.

Perona fixed the blanket around the dog’s heads and played fetch with him, while Mihawk observed them from a safe distance. From time to time, Cerberus would bring the old, drooly skull to him and he’d throw it far away for the dog to chase, and it would take him a bit longer to gather it and come back, since the heads didn’t seem to agree on which direction to take. While they waited and Perona cheered for their dog as the heads fought for dominance, she’d drop down besides him and she’d hold into his arm for a while, in silence.

“This place isn’t so bad.” She said, resting her head against his shoulder. “Mother would usually tell me about how inhospitable and horrible it was. She said you could hear wailing and crying from the souls of the departed mortals and that it was unbearably cold…”

“Your mother must be talking about another part of the Underworld. So far,the parts you’ve visited belong to the Erebus. Surely these fields are not always as calm and silent like this, but she must have been talking about Tartarus.”

Perona seemed intrigued. When they had begun their little tours across the Netherworld, Mihawk had explained it was divided in several locations that were important for her to know. As a guest, she could only walk around the meadows of Erebus, but she could not go further into the Elysium Fields, the Demos Oneiros or the Tartarus, among other nooks and crannies of the Netherworld. She wasn't _that_ curious, she had to admit. Elysium sounded just fine, but the other places didn't appeal much to her. However, Mihawk explained she could _technically_ walk around the entire Underworld if she accepted to become his queen.

“You never explained how you got here.” Mihawk said, frowning as he stared at her. To come directly from an entrance to Cerberus’ cave, one needed to get through the first branch of Stygia, or through Avernos, the Lake of the Dead. "How did you reach this part without crossing any waters?”

“Hmmm… can you draw the map you traced the other day?” She requested, thinking she could explain better if he did so. Mihawk nodded and retrieved a discarded bone from the forgotten skeleton they had taken the skull to play fetch with their dog.

Within a couple of minutes, he had drawn a circular map with five rivers bordering the main land. Some days ago, he'd done the exact same drawing for her to get to know the geography of her new home a little better. Mihawk wrote the names of the waters with a neat and sharp calligraphy: Styx, Lethe, Acheron, Cocytus and Phlegethon. South from the River of Flame, the Tartarus. And surrounding it all, Oceanus, the Sea of Oblivion. To the east of the palace, on the shores of the River of Memories, were the Elysian Fields. Up north, Demos Oneiros, the Land of Dreams and, for Mihawk, a largely uncharted place.

Mihawk was careful to mark an ‘x’ on Cerberus’ cave, where they currently were. Most of those were unknown territories for her, but Perona took a couple of colored stones and decorated the map, marking the places she had already visited. She was specially careful to place a white stone close to where the x marked their spot.

So far, Mihawk had taken her to his palace, and she knew the orchards and gardens like the palm of her hand by then. He had also accompanied her to the Asphodel Meadows, where most of the mortal souls rested, and towards the Vale of Mourning, a large field in which the souls of those who kept dwelling in mourning would usually remain, crying for their unrequited feelings.

“I found a gate that was unknown and seemingly forbidden for mortals, but it was closed shut. The most logical option would have been to come through the Gate of Shades, but Mother could have followed me. Instead, I’ve heard the rumor about a missing Otherworldly Gate that could only be opened when the Sun and the Moon kissed.”

“The Eclipse.”

“Precisely. So I searched for it and found it, it was hidden inside an old crypt.”

“How did you open it?”

“That’s the thing… I didn’t. I had no idea what to do, but there was something, a living thing, calling me to help it crack it open. So I did what I could and forced the powers of the Earth into it. A Narcissus flower bloomed on the gravestone and the entrance opened, as if the ground had split open for me to go through. I crawled down on it and it led me to a large tunnel, and you know the rest.”

“A Narcissus…?” Mihawk said, trying to think if there was any sort of clue that would come to mind about the mysterious gate from which she came.

“Maybe I’m overthinking things, but… I like to believe someone wanted me to come down here. They wanted to help me escape, so they helped me open the gate.”

“That’s nice… but doesn’t that mean someone besides the two of us knows where you are?”

Perona swallowed. Perhaps he was right.

* * *

Queen Marrow was growing desperate. Her daughter had been missing for almost two months and the flowers and the birds seemed to miss her just as much as she did. The trees in her prairie had begun to die, their leaves leaving them day by day. Marrow cried, and the heavens cried with her, ruining her precious crops and gardens. The mortals in her realm began to notice her daughter’s absence just as much, because they became more cautious while going outside. The warmth and glow of Perona’s powers was missing and the days didn’t seem to last as long now, the night becoming a dangerous time for mere humans to walk alone in the dark.

Marrow was growing desperate, but she knew she could find her. Nature called her, she was one with it, and she could hear the Earth telling her about her daughter’s whereabouts. She just had to keep digging deeper into the Earth, until the sound of her child’s laughter became loud and clear, so she could follow the trail of her voice.

“Your Majesty!” One of her courtesans screamed, rushing into her meadow with a reddened face. “We’ve found a trail!”

“What is it?” The Queen asked with a hasty tone.

“Flowers, your Majesty. We believed they had all withered and died, but a peasant found them near a cemetery by their village. Princess Perona may be close by.”

Marrow’s eyes widened and a smile drew itself on her beautiful, demarcated face. She fixed her robe’s neck and grabbed a hold of her scythe, ordering her underlings to move along, like a hunting party chasing for prey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a sucker for ancient Greek culture & myths, but I won't claim to be an expert. If you see some very grievous inaccuracies, please let me know.
> 
> More about Queen Marrow later on!

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos are loved, comments are adored and worshiped!
> 
> Hit me up on Tumblr: [ Midorimortem ](https://midorimortem.tumblr.com/)


End file.
